Florida Inv | Jean DeglonIndex: Renting a home better than buying

Renting a home in South Florida beats buying one — assuming you’re a disciplined investor.

That’s the conclusion of the Beracha, Hardin & Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index, a housing barometer developed by professors at Florida Atlantic and Florida International universities.

The quarterly index, to be released Thursday, looks at wealth creation, determining whether it’s more advantageous to buy and build equity or rent the same property and invest the money that would have been spent on a down payment and other costs of ownership.

Renting has topped buying for about two years in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, largely because stock market gains have outperformed home-price appreciation, said Ken Johnson, an FAU economist and one of the index’s authors.